The novel is born after the death of its authorBy Prof Dr Sohail ansari
“If
there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you
must write it.” ― Toni Morrison A person without a
sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on
the road. Henry Ward Beecher
This is the posthumous novel in the different sense of a word
·
The recent novel of this great writer reflects conviction on his
part that theorizing can not capture realities as he in this novel truly finds
out an after life by dying himself.
Hasad can cause the
person to indulge in disbelief because it causes the individual to feel that
Allah has not been fair with him; he forgets all the mercy and blessings which
Allah has bestowed upon him. The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi
wa-sallam) said:“They
are enemies for Allah’s bounties.” They asked: “Who are they?” He
(sallallahu alaihi wa-sallam) said: “Those
who envy people for what Allah has given them of Bounty.” [at-Tabaranee]
Literary Journalism
Updated May 02, 2017
Literary
journalism is a
form of nonfiction that combines factual reporting with some of the narrative techniques
and stylistic strategies traditionally associated with fiction.
Also called narrative
journalism.
In his
ground-breaking anthology The Literary Journalists (1984), Norman Sims observed that literary journalism
"demands immersion in
complex, difficult subjects. The voice of the writer surfaces to show that an
author is at work."
The
term literary
journalism is
sometimes used interchangeably with creative nonfiction; more often, however, it is regarded as one type of creative nonfiction.
Highly
regarded literary journalists in the U.S. today include John McPhee, Jane Kramer, Mark Singer, and
Richard Rhodes. Some notable literary journalists of the past century include
Stephen Crane, Jack London, George Orwell, and Tom Wolfe.
CLASSIC
EXAMPLES OF LITERARY JOURNALISM
- "A
Hanging" by George Orwell
- "The
San Francisco Earthquake" by Jack London
- "The
Watercress Girl" by Henry Mayhew
OBSERVATIONS
- "Literary
journalism is not fiction--the people are real
and the events occurred--nor is it journalism in a traditional sense. There is
interpretation, a personal point of view, and (often) experimentation with
structure and chronology. Another essential
element of
literary journalism is its focus. Rather than emphasizing institutions,
literary journalism explores the lives of those who are affected by those
institutions."
(Jan Whitt, Women in American Journalism: A New History. University of Illinois Press, 2008)
- Characteristics
of Literary Journalism
- "Among the shared characteristics of literary journalism are immersion reporting, complicated structures, character development, symbolism, voice, a focus on ordinary people . . ., and accuracy. Literary journalists recognize the need for a consciousness on the page through which the objects in view are filtered.
"A list of characteristics can be an easier way to define literary journalism than a formal definition or a set of rules. Well, there are some rules, but Mark Kramer used the term 'breakable rules' in an anthology we edited. Among those rules, Kramer included:
- Literary
journalists immerse themselves in subjects'
worlds. . . .
- Literary journalists work out implicit covenants about accuracy and candor. . . .
- Literary journalists write mostly about routine events.- Literary journalists develop meaning by building upon the readers' sequential reactions.
- Literary journalists work out implicit covenants about accuracy and candor. . . .
- Literary journalists write mostly about routine events.- Literary journalists develop meaning by building upon the readers' sequential reactions.
". . . Journalism ties itself to the actual,
the confirmed, that which is not simply imagined. . . . Literary journalists
have adhered to the rules of accuracy--or mostly so--precisely because their
work cannot be labeled as journalism if
details and characters are imaginary."
(Norman Sims, True Stories: A Century of Literary Journalism. Northwestern University Press, 2008)
- "As defined by Thomas B. Connery, literary journalism is 'nonfiction printed prose whose verifiable content is shaped and transformed into a story or sketch by use of narrative and rhetorical techniques generally associated with fiction.' Through these stories and sketches, authors 'make a statement, or provide an interpretation, about the people and culture depicted.' Norman Sims adds to this definition by suggesting the genre itself allows readers to 'behold others' lives, often set within far clearer contexts than we can bring to our own.' He goes on to suggest, 'There is something intrinsically political—and strongly democratic—about literary journalism—something pluralistic, pro-individual, anti-cant, and anti-elite.' Further, as John E. Hartsock points out, the bulk of work that has been considered literary journalism is composed 'largely by professional journalists or those writers whose industrial means of production is to be found in the newspaper and magazine press, thus making them at least for the interim de facto journalists.' Common to many definitions of literary journalism is that the work itself should contain some kind of higher truth; the stories themselves may be said to be emblematic of a larger truth."
(Amy Mattson Lauters, ed., The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, Literary Journalist. University of Missouri Press, 2007)
- "Through dialogue, words, the presentation of the scene, you can turn over the material to the reader. The reader is ninety-some percent of what's creative in creative writing. A writer simply gets things started."
(John McPhee, quoted by Norman Sims in "The Art of Literary Journalism." Literary Journalism, ed. by Norman Sims and Mark Kramer. Ballantine, 1995)
(Norman Sims, True Stories: A Century of Literary Journalism. Northwestern University Press, 2008)
- "As defined by Thomas B. Connery, literary journalism is 'nonfiction printed prose whose verifiable content is shaped and transformed into a story or sketch by use of narrative and rhetorical techniques generally associated with fiction.' Through these stories and sketches, authors 'make a statement, or provide an interpretation, about the people and culture depicted.' Norman Sims adds to this definition by suggesting the genre itself allows readers to 'behold others' lives, often set within far clearer contexts than we can bring to our own.' He goes on to suggest, 'There is something intrinsically political—and strongly democratic—about literary journalism—something pluralistic, pro-individual, anti-cant, and anti-elite.' Further, as John E. Hartsock points out, the bulk of work that has been considered literary journalism is composed 'largely by professional journalists or those writers whose industrial means of production is to be found in the newspaper and magazine press, thus making them at least for the interim de facto journalists.' Common to many definitions of literary journalism is that the work itself should contain some kind of higher truth; the stories themselves may be said to be emblematic of a larger truth."
(Amy Mattson Lauters, ed., The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, Literary Journalist. University of Missouri Press, 2007)
- "Through dialogue, words, the presentation of the scene, you can turn over the material to the reader. The reader is ninety-some percent of what's creative in creative writing. A writer simply gets things started."
(John McPhee, quoted by Norman Sims in "The Art of Literary Journalism." Literary Journalism, ed. by Norman Sims and Mark Kramer. Ballantine, 1995)
Background
of Literary Journalism
- "[Benjamin] Franklin's Silence Dogood essays marked his
entrance into literary journalism. Silence,
the persona Franklin
adopted, speaks to the form that literary journalism should
take--that it should be situated in the ordinary world--even
though her background was not typically found in newspaper writing."
(Carla Mulford, "Benjamin Franklin and Transatlantic Literary Journalism." Transatlantic Literary Studies, 1660-1830, ed. by Eve Tavor Bannet and Susan Manning. Cambridge University Press, 2012) - "A
hundred and fifty years before the New Journalists of
the 1960s rubbed our noses in their egos, [William] Hazlitt put
himself into his work with a candor that would have been unthinkable a few
generations earlier."
(Arthur Krystal, "Slang-Whanger." Except When I Write. Oxford University Press, 2011) - "The
phrase 'New Journalism' first appeared in an American context in the 1880s
when it was used to describe the blend of sensationalism
and crusading journalism--muckraking on behalf of immigrants and the
poor--one found in the New York World and other papers.
. . .
"Although it was historically unrelated to [Joseph] Pulitzer's New Journalism, the genre of writing that Lincoln Steffens called 'literary journalism' shared many of its goals. As the city editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser in the 1890s, Steffens made literary journalism--artfully told narrative stories about subjects of concern to the masses--into editorial policy, insisting that the basic goals of the artist and the journalist (subjectivity, honesty, empathy) were the same."
(Robert S. Boynton, Introduction to The New New Journalism: Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft. Vintage Books, 2005)
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